Scars Only Run Skin Deep
by KuttingCorners
Summary: "Pidge, wait!" Shiro shouted, but Pidge ignored him. 'Always gotta protect me, huh' she thought to herself. Man, was she wrong. -An infiltration mission leaves Pidge with scars, physical and emotional.


The paladins were on a mission, infiltrating a Galra base to halt trading between different posts. This mission, however, was different. The Galra were able to make clones of each paladin, as this was a more advanced ship. Pidge quickly spotted a secluded area. _Bingo_.

"Help me hold them off!" She yelled via comm. She pierced a soldier in the head with the pointed area of her bayard, before running off. _"Pidge, wait!"_ Shiro shouted, but Pidge ignored him. _'Always gotta protect me, huh?'_ she thought to herself.

_Man, was she wrong._

* * *

She barged into the room, and as she expected, it was the technical control center. Galra soldiers quickly arrived and pinned her in a corner, catching her off guard. Every two steps she took, she'd be taking 3 steps back as she was obviously outnumbered. Her bayard had been shot out of her hand and she was held down. She clawed at the robotic fighters, but they had _more_ strength than usual. _Better_ defense than usual. She _hated_ that. Other robots tried shooting at her, but her small frame made it easier to nimbly dodge. Stamina wasn't exactly her thing. Her professional dodges began looking like a little girl squirming around. A laser hit her dead in the back, and she collapsed onto her stomach, followed by an obscenity escaping her lips. She turned and noticed that the robots, looked tougher, stronger, more intimidating.

_These aren't robots._

She yelped as they began closing in on her, alarming the rest of the crew.

_"Pidge? Pidge, come in!"_

She backed herself into a corner, and just as their hands began slamming the wall around her, a loud, tight punch echoed. The Galrans all turned, and one by one, were knocked and shot to the floor, dead. Pidge looked up to see Shiro growling with his fist glowing purple, and a Galran gun in his hands. "Thanks," She huffed. She smiled to show him it was all in good spirit. She was waiting for Shiro to start ranting on about how scared he was for her, so she stood, took off her helmet and straightened her posture.

The silence caught her off guard.

Shiro was yet to say anything, but his footsteps echoed and grew heavier as she realized he was stepping closer. She backed away and nervously chuckled. "Heh, Shiro? You good?"

Her heart stopped.

Shiro's hands pounded the wall, locking Pidge between him. Words couldn't come to her throat as he used one hand to fondle the side of her breast, down to her hip, and curving inwards. The threatening smile she was given made tears well up in her eyes.

_No._

_Nononono._

_This cannot be happening._

"Shiro!" She cried out, but was shut up as he covered her mouth with his other hand. He violently shoved her against the wall, and tracked his hands up her side. She dropped her helmet.

_"Pidge? Are you okay?"_

The muffled scream of agony and the sound of tight clothing tearing set him off, and the other paladins' began urgently calling for Pidge's name.

_"The princess did not disappoint when she chose you," a deep voice sneered._

_Oh, no._

_The voice screamed of Galra._

_"GET PIDGE OUT OF THERE!"_

She cried loudly and screamed as the disguised Galran left a bloody scratch across her breasts. "Stop, please! No!"

She fidgeted around and let out muffled cries as his hands began reaching for between her legs.

_"You're small, but I can make do…"_

He rubbed his long, piercing claws back and forth her inner thigh, and Pidge whimpered as her clothes were being torn and tattered. Pidge's desperate cries faded into whimpers of pain.

"You give in easily," the Galran whispered in her ear. _"That's good."_

The unbuckling of pants echoed as he gashed her breasts and her leg, making blood form on the surface and trickle down.

_God, please no._

Tears spilled faster as he scratched at her back, smiling one last time.

* * *

All of a sudden, he fell to his knees as a gunshot boomed.

He laid dead on the floor, and Pidge fell onto her gashed open and bloody knees, quivering. She looked up, and there Shiro was, a gun in his hand. Her head felt scattered.

"Pidge!" He cried out, sounding as if he was going to cry as well. He carefully walked closer, but stopped in his tracks as Pidge shivered and struggled with herself to pull away. _"P-P-Please D-D-D-Don't H-Hurt M-Me-Me,"_ she repeated multiple times in a shaky voice. Every step and move Shiro made, she would flinch. She covered her extremely exposed and beaten up upper body. Shiro stared at the young girl. Not long after, Hunk and Lance rushed into the room.

"Pidge! Is she… _Oh no…"_

The boys caught notice of the young girl curled up in the corner, fear and dread in her eyes. She trembled at the sight of 2 teenagers and an adult standing in the same room as her vulnerable body was. "Pidge, Pidgey," Lance whimpered. He cautiously stepped closer, making sure to appear friendly towards the traumatized girl. He knelt beside her and wrapped his arm around her shoulder carefully. She pulled him in and cried, keeping one arm around her exposed chest. Lance looked down at the girl and began tearing up. "Let's get you back home," he whispered, and Pidge nodded. He wrapped Pidge around him to support her up, and the paladins evacuated immediately.

* * *

When they got on board, Allura rushed over to the distressed child and hugged her, sobbing into her tawny hair. "Pidge, I'm so sorry," she stammered. She got Pidge into a healing pod right after.

"Is she going to be okay?" She asked the fearful Coran. "She should be," he replied. "She did lose quite a bit of blood, and got scars that won't fade. But she'll be fine."

And in a couple of hours, Pidge was fully healed.

At least, physically. The scars are only skin deep on her body, _but the mental ones hit her to her very heart._

* * *

For the next couple of weeks, Pidge would never stay in a room without Allura, and would lock herself in her own bedroom. The paladins were all concerned for their friend, indeed.

"Hey, Pidge!" Hunk waved at her, and Pidge hesitantly waved back, pulling on her clothes. "You wanna eat?" He offered her a plate of peanut butter cookies. Pidge backed away as the plate inched closer. It did bring a frown to Hunk's face, but he respected her, and didn't nag on.

Shiro, on the other hand, was having her discomfort around the paladins hit him hardest. Sure, she was apprehensive around all of them, but she avoided him completely. She refused to talk with him. She understood it was a disguised Galran who attacked her, but she never ruled out the 'real' Shiro, either. Even looking at him gave her bad memories, yet the paladins were confused as to why she cut him off completely. He already felt bad for endangering Pidge like that, but for her to have not spoken to him at all in the longest time was the cherry on the devil's cake.

* * *

They expected her to get better after some time, but when her state didn't change for nearly a month, Allura took things into her own hands.

"Pidge? Can we talk?" She asked when they were in Allura's room. Pidge reluctantly nodded. She squeezed her legs together and crossed her arms. She's gotten really defensive, too. "I'm worried for you, Pidge. When I heard you over comm, I was… horrified. Every time I replay that moment in my head, it stings." Pidge looked down at Allura's white bedsheets. "I'm fine, don't worry," she whispered. Allura moped. Sure, she has had lewd comments thrown her way before, but to be actually touched like that… It must have hurt Pidge, like a permanent scar.

"But, that's not what I'm here to talk about," Allura continued.

"What bothered me was… _It was how easily you gave in._"

Pidge trembled before breaking out into tears. Allura wrapped a hand around her in comfort. "Pidge, you can tell me what's wrong," She gently whispered, "Because I know you aren't." Pidge looked into Allura's jewel blue eyes. "Promise you won't tell the others?" she whimpered. "I won't, but it's important you open up. Now, what's wrong?"

Pidge took a deep shaky breath.

"Allura, this… this isn't the first time… it's…"

Allura choked as Pidge trailed off.

_"Pidge… Has this happened before?"_

Pidge trembled as tears rolled down her face before replying with a weak nod, following by a sharp, emotional gasp from Allura.

_"I… was e-eleven or twelve that… that time… a-and… it was by… these h-high schoolers… near my… my school… around… Lance's… age…"_

She breathed in.

_"T-they called….called me n-names… i-insulted my b-brother… I-I punched them… a-and the n-next thing… t…they got o-on me… t-tried to… s-shove t-themselves… i-into m-me…" _

She hiccupped as Allura tightened the hug, crying onto Pidge's shoulder.

_"M-Matt s-saved m-me i-in t-time… P-punched them… k-knocked them u-up… ca-called p-police…"_

Allura shushed Pidge in a motherly way. "Don't worry, Pidge. It'll be alright."

Pidge smiled slightly, feeling almost foreign. A genuine smile hadn't come naturally on her face for almost a month.

* * *

It took months, but Pidge had begun moving on. She gradually started talking to Shiro with one-liners, to expressions, to conversations. Her nervous habits had become a part of her, and she'd still flinch whenever she was uncomfortable or anyone was close. She told her story to the others, and they supported her every step of the way, accepting her for who she is. She began training again, and going on missions.

She was put to the test, however, to see if she _really_ had moved on.

They landed on a planet, but a Galra fleet fled in quickly to attack. The paladins split up, and Pidge had a ship on her tail with three Galra men. Green got tired in the planet's dry climate, so Pidge fought them face to face. She was shaky, but she took down the first two easily. The third one swung at her to catch her attention. _"You still have scars, lioness." _

Pidge's heart jumped and her eyes widened.

It was the same Galran that attacked her all those months ago. _He wasn't dead._

Now was her chance to make him, once and for all. But she wouldn't move the way she wanted to. When she wanted to charge at him, she shivered instead. When she wanted to use her bayard, her hand would only shake. "You're still a weak little girl," the Galran sneered, and began taking steps closer to Pidge. Her back hit a rock, making him smile. "I'm not afraid of you, _you sick dumbass_," she growled, but both Pidge and the Galran could hear the fear in her voice. "I took too long last time," he said, "But I'll jump right into it this time."

He shot at Pidge, who ducked and wrapped her bayard around his legs. She ran in a circle and at an angle to trip him up, then wrapped his hands. He quickly caught free and tugged her closer.

_No._

_Not again._

"Now you're all mine," he breathed on her, holding her close to his chest, and running his hand down her leg. She narrowed her eyes to cover up her fret. She grabbed at his face in a passionate way. _"No, I'm not."_

And she grabbed the gun, and held him at gunpoint.

"You think I'm yours because of scars? _Scars only run skin deep_."

And she pulled the trigger.

* * *

_"PIDGE?" _

'Yeah?" She replied to Shiro.

_"Are you okay?"_ He fretted.

She looked at the dead body of the same person that assaulted her months ago.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Never better," she affirmed.

And Shiro smiled. Because for the first time in forever_, he hears genuine happiness in her voice._


End file.
